It's starting to look like Andy Reid's final season with the Eagles

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. - This is what it has come to.

"Fire Andy!"

A fan in a Jeremy Maclin jersey stood at the fence above the Eagles' idling buses. Each player and assistant coach who trudged up the ramp from the tomb-silent locker room, dragging the weight of another appalling loss, was greeted with the chant.

"Fire Andy! We want Gruden!"

This is what it has come to in Andy Reid's 13th season as head coach of the Eagles. His team is 1-4 after a miserable, sloppy, unprofessional effort here led to a 31-24 loss. Every major decision Reid has made in the past three years has blown up in his ever-redder face. The seasons of consistent success, of double-digit wins and deep playoff runs, feel like ancient history. They feel like the work of another coach.

Start with the knowledge that Reid is very unlikely to be fired now or at any time during this season. It is not the norm in the NFL. It is not the style of this ownership regime. And it probably won't really help anything except the fans' bloodlust in the aftermath of an especially grueling four-game losing streak.

But this has the look and feel and especially the smell of Reid's final season. He has burned through the equity he built with his first six seasons. He must be judged now on the product on the field and the decisions that led to its utter failure.

Reid decided on the unheard-of promotion of Juan Castillo from offensive line coach to defensive coordinator. The defense is a mess.

Reid was fooled by Michael Vick's stretch of midseason performances and committed the franchise and millions of dollars to the quarterback. Vick is a turnover machine on the brink of breaking down at any time.

Reid has final say on drafts that have not produced a difference-making defensive player since Trent Cole in 2005, and he was a fifth-round accident.

Any coach in the NFL would be fired after Reid's last three, declining seasons. There is no reason left not to hold Reid to that same standard.

This 2011 team was overhyped from the start after the spending spree in the beginning of August. Those sky-high expectations make this horrendous start look even worse. But throw out those expectations - which, by the way, were shared and encouraged by the team's front office - and this is still a firing-offense of a football team.